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Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

SILVER AGE AT ITS BEST June 1, 2007
A terrific book, what a way to experience the silver age Adam Strange. These are the three stories from Showcase # 17,18 & 19. And also the Mystery in Space stories from issues 53 - 65. Just great stories that would otherwise be very expensive to read.

5 out of 5 stars

Fun stories with an empathetic hero April 1, 2005
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

While I think that everyone who reads comics is familiar with Adam Strange, speaking for myself, I was never that interested in him. That's because that the editorial offices of DC never seemed to interested in him after the 1970s. Yeah, he popped up on occasion in "Justice League of America" or any series or story that featured aliens (e.g., the 1980s crossover series "Invasion!") where Adam Strange would be useful.

Then in 2004, DC began publishing a nifty mini-series about their space hero. And to tie in, they released an archive edition. And both are great.

As the other reviews pointed out, Adam Strange is an Earthman who is periodically transported to the planet of Rann, and to his lady-love, Alanna. Naturally, Adam frequently battles menaces to Rann's safety, usually in the form of bizarre aliens attempting to conquer Rann, or the occasional menace grown on Rann. Of course, Adam is far better equipped to handle these evils than your average Rannian.

That sounds derisive, although it's not meant to be. Like most comics of the Silver Age, Adam Strange followed a formula, and it worked for the strip. The stories are clever actioners by DC stalwart Garnder Fox with nice art by first Mike Sekowsky, and brilliant art by Carmine Infantino. Plus, Adam is an empathetic character. He's never able to stay on Rann for very long, and spends much of his time on Earth waiting for the next zeta-beam to take him to Rann and Alanna. And when he does arrive, he's only there long enough to save the day and vanish again.

Again, DC has done an excellent job of diversifying its Archive line. I hope, given renewed interest in Adam Strange by both the editors and the readers alike, that more volumes of this archive series come out sooner rather than later.

5 out of 5 stars

Adam Strange, a tormented and unusual comic book hero September 18, 2004
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

Amazing! D.C., thanks for for bringing back an authentic comic book hero and a sentimental favorite. Gardner Fox, Adam Strange's creator, was an icon for those of us who came of age in the late 50's and early 60's.
Other reviewers feel the same way about the Fox-Infantino collaboration that I do: A first rate comic with incredible and tantalizing covers, imaginative drawing, and entertaining stories.
Indiana Jones meets Buck Rogers meets Casablanca. Adam Strange, an earthman and archeologist, used no superweapons to defeat his superior foes. All he used were his brains (Wow! This guy rivaled, or surpassed, Batman in the sheer use of brainpower without the benefit of a utility belt!), a rocket pack, and an semi-useless ray-gun (considering the impregnable quality of the aliens.). His alien girlfriend and equal, Alanna, seldom left his side. At the very least she inspired Adam Strange to persevere in the face of hopeless odds, so she shares the glory.
On an aside, I agree that this was formula-writing; so was the original "Star Trek" for the matter(which in my opinion cribbed the Adam Strange "endings" quite a bit), but I also second the reviewer who said that Adam Strange was an inspiration and role model for the rest of us. Brains counted! Gardner Fox, an attorney and prolific writer, projected a lot of his ideals and values unto Strange. This character made a difference in my life. Too bad Fox is no longer around to receive my praise and gratitude.
Adam Strange managed, issue after issue, to save an entire civilization/planet using his powers of observation and quick wits. Sadly, Strange--after risking his life--then remained on Rann just long enough to reap a grateful half-kiss from the excellently drawn Alanna before the teleportation zeta-beam effects wore off and sent him back to earth. Why and how writer Fox and his formula tormented Adam Strange (and us) with heartache remains a mystery to this day. But we couldn't wait for the next issue...hoping Strange would remain with Alanna for good (which he finally did).
In this respect, Gardner Fox anticipated the pain of Marvel's superheroes, especially Spiderman.
By the way, before there was "Playboy" my friends and I would gab and speculate hours on end about Strange's female equal, side-kick, and lady-love. What a babe!
The melancholy, if not heart-wrenching, endings certainly prepared a generation emotionally for Sophoclean tragedy, or so it seemed to me when I was in junior high. If you recall the haunting, Adam Strange-like ending from "Shakespeare in Love," you know what I mean. But don't kid yourself, these were love stories in an "acceptable" format for pre-teen and young teen males.
And yes, Adam Strange patented the, "I'll be back" trope long before Arnie ever did...and gave it a tender significance. I am glad Adam Strange is back.
If you enjoyed the Silver Age, Adam Strange is an Archive to treasure. I can't wait for Archive #2.

5 out of 5 stars

Fox/Infantino Classic Interstellar Adventures! September 2, 2004
26 out of 26 found this review helpful

If, as I was, you were born when everyone "liked Ike", and Captain Kangaroo was the nation's babysitter, if you read comic books, you knew Adam Strange! An adventurous archeologist long before Indiana Jones made the profession fashionable, he would experience a kid's ultimate fantasy, at the dawn of the Space Age...transporting to a distant planet, fighting incredible enemies armed with only a 'ray gun', a rocket pack, and a keen intellect, and winning the heart of an exotically beautiful alien girl. It was Edgar Rice Burroughs, updated, and it was IRRESISTABLE!

While his uniform was straight out of pulp SF magazines of the '30s and '40s (sort of 'Flash Gordon Meets the Rocketeer'), he never looked ridiculous, particularly when illustrated by the legendary Carmine Infantino (who, with his pioneering work on the Flash, proved that superheroes didn't have to look like overweight wrestlers). While Mike Sekowsky's earlier work lacks the simplistic grace of Infantino, there is no doubt that Adam Strange was cut from a different cloth than Superman and Batman. He was a thinking man's hero, lean and graceful, and willing to rely on his wits rather than on unbelievable powers, or an overstocked utility belt. That his intellectual exploits would earn him the title of the planet Rann's 'Champion' became an inspiration to me to study harder, and to understand that nearly any problem could be solved if you simply "used your head".

And oh, the bittersweet irony, when, after saving Rann, Strange would always be returned to Earth, before he could get more than a kiss from his beloved Alanna! Hokey, maybe, but what a hook for the next issue of "Strange Adventures"!

I never forgave DC Comics for yanking Gardner Fox and Infantino away from Adam Strange and using their talents to 'juice up' the "new" Batman of the mid-sixties. Perhaps the 'Adam Strange Formula' was a limited one, but even the lesser efforts of the creative 'dynamic duo' were a cut above anything else of the period. Certainly, under new hands, the Strange stories quickly lost their magic, and the series died. Subsequent 'limited' reappearances have only served to reduce Adam Strange's stature even further, as if DC, in turning the hero into a tragic figure, hoped to justify earlier abandoning him. Certainly, the 'Adam Strange' of recent years is NOT the hero I grew up admiring!

So treasure this first volume, when Adam Strange was pure of heart, and a whole planet believed in him...You have a treat in store for you!

5 out of 5 stars

One of the Finest Archives so far... April 10, 2004
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

Wow.
i was waiting and hoping that someday DC would do right for this character and these stories and they have.
i first ran into Infantino stories from reprints in late 60s/early seventies Strange Adventures.
i used to buy beat up copies at the local flea market on the cheap purely for reading material and became hooked by Infantino's slick, fine lined, modernistic style- which for once perfectly complements the characters and milieu, as well as for the tight, fast paced, and very creative scripting.
i quickly realized that Adam Strange stories were just plain fun to read with oodles of wit and a refreshing lack of the usual cheese found in DCs pre-Denny O'Neil/"relevant" work.
While a good chunk of the book (the first 87 pages) features the first stories illustrated by Mike Sekowsky, the Sekowsky on display here looks a little more refined than the Sekowsky that i know from Justice League.
he seems to be operating in a Ross Andru/Al Toth mode, and his page breakdowns look a tad more sophisticated, and his anatomy less clunky.
not bad, but once the Infantino work kicks in the book really soars.
i've purchased about 10 of the archives so far- there is a ton of great work reprinted in these from Jack Cole to Joe Kubert, CC Beck to Gil Kane, Reed Crandell, Jack Burnley, etc but the work here- both story and art, puts this book at the top of the heap for me.
i agree- Vol 2 can't come soon enough!!!!!

just one request, if anyone from DC is listening- how about collecting the Gil Kane Batgirl back-ups form the late 60s/early 70s Detective Comics?
great work in there, would be a shame to let them gather dust in the vaults.